Can­non’s Auc­tion­eers’ Noe­lene Can­non said the phone bid­ders al­ways push for a high bid. “The mem­o­ra­bilia auc­tion is a sen­ti­men­tal thing. The woman who bought the pho­to­graph said her late fa­ther once met Nel­son Man­dela. I think that’s the rea­son peo­ple buy this items,” she said.

Can­non said she be­lieves both items fetched a fairly good price.

“I can’t re­mem­ber the last time we had such an ex­cit­ing auc­tion,” she said.

David Can­non told the The Wit­ness that the let­ter had been checked and au­then­ti­cated.

Can­non said he had ac­quired the let­ter from a Pi­eter­mar­itzburg man but he did not dis­close his name.

He said the man was a Unisa em­ployee at the time Man­dela posted the let­ter to the in­sti­tu­tion.